


a lot of names

by groove_bunker



Category: Women's Murder Club (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-13
Updated: 2014-02-13
Packaged: 2018-01-12 04:10:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1181719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/groove_bunker/pseuds/groove_bunker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cindy Thomas has been called a lot of things. <br/>But there's one thing that she's particularly fond of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a lot of names

Cindy’s been called a lot of names.

In preschool, they called her carrot top.

It was kind of cute back then but in middle school, it took on something more malicious. Her mom told her they were just jealous of her lovely hair. Her dad taught her some choice words in Spanish.

She almost got in trouble for that.

Middle school was also where they started calling her nerd.

Or geek.

Or her least favourite of all, freak.

Her eidetic memory, the one she’d be so proud of when she becomes a reporter and joins the club

[it’s not a club, the voices chorus in her head]

Is just a talent that no teenager should be given. It’s not fair.

At college, she manages to fit in a little better. She even makes a few friends, but for the first time, she doesn’t have a nickname. The rest of them do but she’s stuck on the outside, kind of attached but just floating along.

She kind of likes it, maybe it makes things easier.

Her dad calls her pumpkin.

And princess.

And sweetie pie.

When he dies, she never wants to hear those words again, never wants to be called another name. She is Cindy, Cindy Thomas, serious newspaper reporter.

She catches Lindsay trying to jimmy open a desk and suddenly she’s catapulted into a world where surnames become common currency.

Everyone’s but hers.

She has to admit that Rain Man was a new one. And the guy was cute and she didn’t hate it. She figures it’s a compliment and compliments aren’t exactly coming thick and fast these days.

It's less of a compliment when she gets arrested, for what feels like the fiftieth time, and Lindsay asks her why she was so stupid. Again. 

Cindy doesn't know if Lindsay thinks she's stupid for doing what she did (it was only a bit of light breaking and entering) or for getting caught.

Jill always makes fun of her age, as if it escaped her that she’s almost fresh out of college and the others have been doing this for years.

She gets used to it once she manages to detach the barbs from Jill’s words. High school wasn’t that long ago and Jill could be one of those popular girls, standing at the lockers, ripping her to shreds.

Claire would be the teacher, the one who intervened, who looked after them all.

And Lindsay.

Cindy didn’t know about Lindsay.

When she speaks up in the back of the van, she sees a look of panic on Lindsay’s face, if only for a second. She wants to do this, wants to prove she’s as big a part of the club as any of the others. She thinks Lindsay gets it.

When Lindsay comes over, after she’s heard shouts and gunshots and she’s repeating one mantra from her mouth

[I am a pancake, I am a pancake]

And another in her head

[please, god, not Lindsay, not Lindsay, anyone but her]

All she sees is the inspector’s smile.

Cindy’s been called a lot of names.

But she thinks pancake is her favourite.

 


End file.
